I am either going to turn 900 linear feet of 3/4 inch EMT into a very nice Frequency 4 (variant L3) dome.... or I'm making a rather precisely-measured pile of scrap metal.

The ceremonial drink has been had.The chopsaw is calling to me.The drumroll, if you please, Maestro....

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

First cut of 70 pieces are all 992 millimeters long. The jig nails it every time. I'm cutting three at once. I think it took longer to make the jig than it did to cut the cuts.

Figjam: You betcha. The struts will get temporarily marked on both ends with a Sharpie as they come out of the jig. Once they've been deburred, flattened, drilled, and radius'd, they'll get a coat of white paint overall and a 3-inch color band on each end to denote their type.

Neato techie bit: Unlike the 4V domes which have 6 different strut lengths with a 28% length variance, the L3 has only 5 different struts with a 17% variance. Less waste = more metal in the structure = stronger dome. And it's more perfectly spherical at the vertices which should make the cover fit better.

Need more beer.

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

Roark now has 3 out of 5 lengths of struts cut - littlerally hundreds of struts.Not very photo-genic, tho.GOAL: Assembly this weekend.Unfortunately, he has jury duty tomorrow, so some delay may be encountered.

burner von braun wrote:Good luck with the dome! Did you decide how you are going to cover it?

Thanks!

Initially, it will be recycled billboard material. I dont care about the look, just need to see if the math for the cover patterns is correct. Once we get that proven, the final product will be canvas duck, either 11 or 16 oz per yard.

I am learning that 250 struts is a LOT of metal to cut, debur, flatten, drill and paint. i spent the whole day cutting and deburring! I am likely sweating the details too much, but until I get a feel for the results I figured I better do it all just right.

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

! I have a lovely set of scars across my knuckles from deburring when not wearing gloves. you probably realise this already but do wear gloves. thats going to be hell of a lot of material to carry to the playa. i hope you have enough hands to make assembly easy, if you need a hand i would suggest, as lazy at it seems, supervising the volounteers rather than trying to do it yourself - it works better that way and you can give directions better. also you can pass the beers around easier

FREE THE SHERPASBurners with torches is right and natural and just.-fishy.CATCH AND RELEASE.

graidawg wrote:! I have a lovely set of scars across my knuckles from deburring when not wearing gloves. you probably realise this already but do wear gloves. thats going to be hell of a lot of material to carry to the playa. i hope you have enough hands to make assembly easy, if you need a hand i would suggest, as lazy at it seems, supervising the volounteers rather than trying to do it yourself - it works better that way and you can give directions better. also you can pass the beers around easier

Sage advice indeed. I nicked myself pretty good yesterday and was reminded that human hide was never meant to argue with a grinder. The funny part was I had just removed my gloves and they were sitting just a foor away on the table. DUH, Roark!

Setup: i will be ably (and amply!) assisted by the Swedish Bikini Team and perhaps The Nephew Club. You are right: staging something like this solo would be a nightmare!

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

Roark wrote:Setup: I will be ably (and amply!) assisted by the Swedish Bikini Team

Pictures or it didn't happen!

Better yet: Get yer fuzzy tuckus over here for BM 2013 and you can play man-slave for Heidi, Inga, or The Twins. I'm sure after a long day of mistreatment at my hands they'll be ready for tea, sympathy, and a good backrub.

Picture it happening!

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

uncle sticky wrote:I also recommend an arbor press for the ends, and a drill press. Oh, and use bolts that are longer than needed, makes assembly go faster if you have a bit of wiggle room.

Hiya Unc!

Tonight I finished cutting, marking, deburring and prepping the 250 struts. This is starting to feel like WORK! Someone remind me why I didn't just go with a Frequency 3 dome?

No arbor press here. I have a 20-ton hydraulic shop press. Tomorrow I will build the jig for the press and get to smashing the ends. I got the press because I potentially want to use 1 inch EMT for the "big" dome (30+ feet). I just didn't think an arbor press would deal with that big of stock. And if I really get the bug, I may be making a few more of these. We will see...

BTW: I have a drill press. Just have to build a jig for it. (Friday's project).

My chopsaw hasn't had this much fun since I quit building race cars!

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

Roark is temporarily sidelined by an excess of workload (he has a brutal boss) and what appears to be a torn rotator cuff (which he refuses to have treated). More progress tomorrow.Cuz you know... he's gonna ignore the Boss, and ignore the shoulder, and do what he wants... which is to build a dome.

Sunbeam56 wrote:Roark is temporarily sidelined by an excess of workload (he has a brutal boss) and what appears to be a torn rotator cuff (which he refuses to have treated). More progress tomorrow.Cuz you know... he's gonna ignore the Boss, and ignore the shoulder, and do what he wants... which is to build a dome.

It's just a scratch, Boss. And the night isn't over. Once the meds kick-in, I may retire to the garage for some hydraulic-press therapy.

Surgery is for wussies... Real Men put on their UtiliKilt and Git 'Er Dun!!!!! (Only 219 days until The Man burns...)

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

pour some beer in the wound, wrap it with duct tape and get back to work!

SIR! Yes Sir, Sir!

Dome boot camp. It aint for sissys...

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

Sunbeam56 wrote:Roark is temporarily sidelined by an excess of workload (he has a brutal boss) and what appears to be a torn rotator cuff (which he refuses to have treated). More progress tomorrow.Cuz you know... he's gonna ignore the Boss, and ignore the shoulder, and do what he wants... which is to build a dome.

It's just a scratch, Boss. And the night isn't over. Once the meds kick-in, I may retire to the garage for some hydraulic-press therapy.

Surgery is for wussies... Real Men put on their UtiliKilt and Git 'Er Dun!!!!! (Only 219 days until The Man burns...)

Okay, both of you subscribe to that macho no injuries/illness unless I'm dead. I guess it means that someone's around to perform amateur surgery...

The Lady with a Lamprey

"The powerful are exploiting people, art and ideas, and this leads to us plebes debating how to best ration ice.Man, no wonder they always win....." Lonesomebri

After engineering the fine tolerances on the brassiere for your avatar, I figured I had a reputation to uphold.

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman

This morning I looked at my hands and decided this must be a successful manly-man project. I decided it was time to wear gloves again. To the store.

BTW: I finally figured-out why Sunbeam was so "go-go-Roark!" on this project. Turns-out she has her eye on using this prototype eventually as a plant-dome-thingie. She tipped her hand when she wandered through my garage with a tape measure, muttering about Platyceriums, heat, light, CO2 and misting systems. She denied it of course, but then I found a well-fondled issue of "Greenhouse Design Digest" hidden beneath a placemat on her table, and the cat was out of the bag.

I am SO abused. Sigh.

Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a beautiful girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee, and I care NOT who writes this nation’s laws. ... S.J. Perelman